The claims of a wider Left unity to take on the NDA, the RJD-LJP combine and the Congress came a cropper in Bihar with none of the major allies willing to yield in the seat sharing process.
So, the major Left parties -- CPI-ML (Liberation), CPI and CPI-M -- have ignored the interests of five smaller parties like All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) and Revolutionary Socialist party (RSP), both constituents of the ruling Left Front in West Bengal.
Besides AIFB and RSP, Socialist Unity Centre of India-Communist (SUCI-C), CPI-ML and Marxist Communist Party of India-United (MCPI-U) have announced to contest in 97 seats to protest the 'big brother attitude' of the three major parties.
Though the three had announced on September 2 that they will fight jointly to avoid fragmentation of votes, it failed to happen.
These parties reached a seat-sharing agreement for 171 seats so far and kept the option open for friendly fight in the rest 72 of the total 243 seats in Bihar.
CPI-ML (L) office secretary Santosh Sahar said the three parties would contest 171 seats in alliance and "There will be friendly fight in at least 30 constituencies".
The CPI has so far released a list 58 candidates with desire to contest in a few more seats.
"Our party has tried its best to fully comply with the seat-sharing agreement with the CPI-ML (L) and the CPI (M). But the party has also decided to field a few candidates against their nominees in friendly fight," said CPI state secretary Badri Narayan Lal.
CPI national executive member U N Mishra said though total alliance in 243 seats did not work out, the positive aspect was that the party was contesting with two other Left parties for the first time on common issues like corruption, land reforms, price rise and recurring floods and drought.
CPI-ML (L) general secretary Deepankar Bhattacharya too said it was a good sign that the Left parties were showing an inclination for a united fight.
While the CPI-ML (L) has released a list of 48 candidates for the first three phases, the CPI-M has announced names of 26 candidates and intends to contest Runisaidpur in the second phase, Lauriya in West Champaran in the third phase and Sasaram and Buxar in the sixth phase.
The CPI and the CPI(M) which earlier had spurned the CPI-ML (L)'s offer for greater Left unity seemed to have realized that they lost much ground to the latter in the post-Lalu Prasad scenario as compared to their status before 1990.
Till the '90s, CPI used to send its representatives to Lok Sabha from seats like Madhubani, Begusarai, Buxar, Jehanabad, Nalanda and Motihari.
CPI-M's Subodh Rai too had won the Bhagalpur LS seat once. Rai has now deserted the party and joined JD(U) to contest from Sultanganj assembly seat this time.
The CPI had won 35 seats in alliance with Congress in 972.
However, in 1977 it managed to win in only 21 seats. In 1980 it won 22 out of 324 assembly seats in undivided Bihar, but fared poorly in 1985 winning just 12 seats. Five years later, CPI in alliance with Lalu Prasad's Janata Dal won 23 seats and got three more seats in alliance with RJD in 1995.
The party continued its alliance with RJD in 2000 and could win only five seats. This declined to three seats in 2005 when it allied with LJP.
The CPI(M) on the other had won three seats in 1967, and four each in 1969 and 1977. The party's tally rose to six seats in 1990, which it retained even in 1995, following its alliance with the RJD. In 2000 the party won just one seat (Bibhutipur) and managed to retain it in 2005.
The CPI-ML(L), earlier known as Indian Peoples' Front, since coming over ground in 1990 won seven out of 82 seats it contested. In 1995, 2000 and 2005 the party won six, five and five seats respectively.
Meanwhile, the five smaller Left parties AIFB, RSP, SUCI(C), CPI-ML and MCPI(U) have declared that they would contest 97 assembly seats in protest against the 'big brother' attitude of the three major Left parties.
CPI-ML coordinator for Bihar and Jharkhand Arvind Sinha charged the three Left parties with not taking smaller parties into confidence before finalising the seat sharing arrangements among themselves.
SUCI (C) secretary Arun Kumar Singh claimed that the alliance of smaller left parties would give the three big brothers a run for their money.
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